December saw the entry of a new horror series into the world of eBooks: The Manifestation trilogy. Alumnus Phil Bolos began writing the first novel, Fiend, the day after he graduated, inspired by a chance run-in with a man in DeKalb. Bolos’ book was e-published through 10 Day Book Club.

Northern Star: When did you start writing your book?

Phil Bolos: Well, I always enjoyed creative writing. It just happened that the night I graduated, I went to a family get-together to celebrate the graduation. Then I came back to NIU and went out with a bunch of friends and my girlfriend at the time. When we were leaving one of the bars out there, a guy walked past me dressed in this really dark trench coat, and everything about him was really dark. That image kind of became the focus of the story. The next morning I had the idea and just started working for it.

NS: Did anything else in DeKalb inspire you?

PB: The setting for our world. Part of it is based completely on a place in Wisconsin that I used to visit called Minocqua. As far as the characters go, they’re really inspired by the people around me. There’s a sheriff who’s almost a complete representation of my friend Mitch. There’s different aspects of other friends that I have in there; my wife plays a major role in some female characters that are in it.

NS: Did you work on any other books while you were at NIU?

PB: I tried a few things, but none if it really went anywhere. This was the first one that really took off. What I thought was going to be the first [book in the series] has actually turned into the first one and the second one. It just kind of got bigger and bigger – the first one got split into two.

NS: What advice would you give to other would-be authors at NIU?

PB: The big thing is don’t give up. The writing of a short story or a book or an article is really the easy part. After that, when you get into editing and get into trying to find a publisher and trying to find an agent – that’s when it gets tough, because there’s tons of writers out there and agents and publishers are really, really picky. It doesn’t matter how good your writing is. You’re going to get a lot of doors slammed in your face, but the thing to remember is that you need to keep going at it and eventually someone will hear you.